With growing concern over a potential global recession, wealthy families are hoarding their assets in preparation. The 2019 UBS Global Family Office Report, released Monday, showed 55 percent of family offices expect the global economy to enter a recession by 2020, 45 percent are refining investment strategies to lessen risks, and 42 percent are increasing their cash reserves.

The UBS/Campden report gives an insight into the thought patterns, habits, and tax affairs of the world's richest. This year, the survey showed 54 percent said they have a succession plan in place, up from 43 percent last year.

"There’s more caution and fear of the public equity markets among ultra-high-net-worth investors,” said Timothy O’Hara, president of Rockefeller Global Family Office. “That has more people thinking about private investments, alternative investments or cash.”

DoubleLine Capital CEO and longtime bond investor Jeffrey Gundlach, told CNBC last week the odds of a recession before the 2020 election are rising. Gundlach pointed to consumer polling data to justify his concerns.

"What happens before recession every time in a very convincing pattern is that first consumers start to feel bad about the future. They say 'the future looks worse than how I feel about the present.' And that started a while ago now, where the view of the future was much grimmer than the view of today," Gundlach said.

The CEO also pointed to a market phenomenon which took place last month when the yield curve inverted signaling a coming recession across Wall Street.

"The way history has kind of proved to work is when the curve inverts for the first time … what happens historically is the curve inverts well before a recession," Gundlach said. "What people don't understand is when the recession is getting to be close to your doorstep, the curve actually steepens out."